"Listening" to Rich

I began reading Rich determined to focus on visual imagery. I soon found, however, a thread of auditory imagery, especially in the poems from The Dream of a Common Language. In all of these poems Rich discusses communication; in "Cartographies of Silence," the topic of choice is the conversation. So, while I recognize the significance of visual imagery such as "ice-floe" and "granite flank laid bare," I also immediately begin to "listen" to, and not look at the poem. If I have any image in mind at this point, it is that of two people talking. But instead of watching them talk, I listen. Once I listen--and since listening is dependent on production of sound, I actually read the poem aloud--I begin to uncover some semblance of form within the freedom of the un-metered and un-rhymed poem. Later in the poem Rich writes "Silence can be a plan/ rigorously executed." I think that this is how she feels about form--lack of form can be a plan, too. I'm still not quite sure what that plan is, but I'm working on it.
Now, to the always delightful topic of politics. I'm not sure that the visual can be more appropriate than the traditional aspects of verse for political poems such as these. First, I'm not entirely sure that visual imagery isn't a traditional aspect of verse, but I'll accept it. I keep asking myself if paying attention to the voice in Rich's poetry is perhaps more important than watching the imagery. In the political realm, doesn't an audience ultimately listen more than it watches? Yes, we have visual symbols throughout political history such as the raised fist or the swastika, but these images have no meaning without the spoken word on which they are based. Throughout Rich's poetry, there seems to be an evolution of female voice. I'm not entirely sure of its course, but in "Cartographies," there is "The scream of an illegitimate voice," in "Twenty-One Love Poems" there are the "different voices" with "different language, different meanings," and in "A Woman Dead in Her Forties" there are "the secrets and silence/in plain language."
All of these references to speaking tell me that I should be listening and not watching.